Marcel Duchamp and the Ready-Made
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0:02 - 0:05(lively music)
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0:05 - 0:06Voiceover: We wanted to
talk about Marcel Duchamp -
0:06 - 0:09and we're looking at a
really famous painting -
0:09 - 0:11of his that caused a huge scandal.
-
0:11 - 0:16It's called "Nude Descending a
Staircase 2," and it dates to 1912. -
0:16 - 0:19It was shown, if I remember correctly,
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0:19 - 0:21in the Armory exhibition in New York,
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0:21 - 0:25and the press just made wild fun of it.
-
0:25 - 0:29Of course, what we're seeing
is this kind of funny Cubism -
0:29 - 0:32that's linked to the way in which
the Futurists thought of Cubism, -
0:32 - 0:35that is really about the
issue of motion itself - -
0:35 - 0:39the movement of the planes of
space as the figure is moving down. -
0:39 - 0:43It has a wonderful mechanical quality.
-
0:43 - 0:44Some art historians have looked at it
-
0:44 - 0:46and said that this was involved
with strobe photography -
0:46 - 0:49and influenced by some of those ideas.
-
0:49 - 0:52Nevertheless, it's still a painting.
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0:52 - 0:55Voiceover: It still fits within
that tradition of painting -
0:55 - 0:58that really begins in the Renaissance,
-
0:58 - 1:00and continues pretty much
unabated for 500 years. -
1:00 - 1:05That's right!, and we would call this
avant-garde, but it's still oil paint. -
1:05 - 1:06It's on canvas.
-
1:06 - 1:07It's made by hand.
-
1:07 - 1:08It's made by the artist.
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1:08 - 1:10It's rendered and so, you're right.
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1:10 - 1:14It's still very firmly embedded
in this very old tradition. -
1:14 - 1:15How radical is that?
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1:15 - 1:21That's 1912; let's see what
happens just a year later. -
1:21 - 1:23It's two objects made into one.
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1:23 - 1:28It's an assisted ready-made, as
Duchamp will later call them. -
1:28 - 1:32It's called "Bicycle Wheel,"
and it's a bicycle wheel -
1:32 - 1:35and [headset] and fork
that's been stuck into a hole -
1:35 - 1:38that's been drilled
into the top of a stool. -
1:38 - 1:43Duchamp has taken these two
ready-made objects in 1913, -
1:43 - 1:47stuck them together and
asked us to look at them -
1:47 - 1:50at them in a very different
way than we would have looked -
1:50 - 1:52at them before he had done this.
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1:52 - 1:53Voiceover: I'm going to say what I think
-
1:53 - 1:56a lot of people feel
when they look at this, -
1:56 - 1:57which is -
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1:57 - 1:58Voiceover: How is this art?
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1:58 - 2:00Voiceover: I think in a
funny way, we're going -
2:00 - 2:02to come back to your
question, "How is this art?" -
2:02 - 2:03And we're going to find the answer
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2:03 - 2:05in the very question you're asking.
-
2:05 - 2:10What I mean to say is Duchamp is asking us
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2:10 - 2:12to think about how we define
what a work of art is. -
2:12 - 2:16The very act of questioning
becomes a part of the content. -
2:16 - 2:18But, there's more here.
-
2:18 - 2:20One of the things that
I think Duchamp wants us -
2:20 - 2:23to think about is what it is
that we want from a work of art. -
2:23 - 2:25Voiceover: Why is that
an important question? -
2:25 - 2:26Voiceover: I think it's a question
-
2:26 - 2:28that's been asked
throughout the avant-garde. -
2:28 - 2:30Let's go back to Manet for a moment.
-
2:30 - 2:34Manet's rejecting the
clarity, the precision -
2:34 - 2:37of the academic tradition
of the salon, right? -
2:37 - 2:40He's forcing us to be
aware of the roughness -
2:40 - 2:43and the physicality of his paint,
-
2:43 - 2:45even as he's rendering something,
-
2:45 - 2:47as opposed to creating something
that's more transparent. -
2:47 - 2:51Even Manet is starting to ask us,
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2:51 - 2:55"Is art simply a kind
of highly-proficient, -
2:55 - 2:58"technically perfect act of rendering?"
-
2:58 - 3:01if it's simply skill, or
must art also encompass, -
3:01 - 3:03and of course, all great art does,
-
3:03 - 3:08a conceptual element, and
what do we actually privilege? -
3:08 - 3:13now, in the 20th century, when
our culture - and this is, I
think, a really critical point - -
3:13 - 3:15our culture is not a
culture of the hand-made. -
3:15 - 3:19Our culture is now a culture
of the mass-produced. -
3:19 - 3:22Painting, although it's
beautiful and remains vital, -
3:22 - 3:25is in some ways really anachronistic.
-
3:25 - 3:28We live in a society
now where everything - -
3:28 - 3:30virtually everything - is mass-produced.
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3:30 - 3:35Voiceover: And things that are unique
and hand-produced are very, very rare. -
3:35 - 3:36Voiceover: Those are the exceptions,
-
3:36 - 3:37and we privilege them because they are.
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3:37 - 3:40Voiceover: But shouldn't
art be special like that? -
3:40 - 3:44Voiceover: Can art be special,
but speak to our age - -
3:44 - 3:49our age of mass-production,
our age of factory-made object? -
3:49 - 3:52During the 18th century,
during the 17th century, -
3:52 - 3:56making a painting by
hand is making a painting -
3:56 - 3:58the way we made virtually everything else.
-
3:58 - 3:59Garments were made by hand.
-
3:59 - 4:01Furniture was made by hand.
-
4:01 - 4:05We live now in a culture
where almost everything -
4:05 - 4:08is made by some sort of
mechanical production. -
4:08 - 4:12Doesn't art have a
responsibility, in order -
4:12 - 4:17to be legitimate, to actually
reflect the reality of our moment, -
4:17 - 4:20even if it means that
we're giving up something -
4:20 - 4:22that we have a kind of nostalgic love for?
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4:22 - 4:25When Duchamp takes this bicycle wheel,
-
4:25 - 4:28which he didn't make,
when he takes this stool -
4:28 - 4:29that was made in a factory,
-
4:29 - 4:32and he puts them together, forcing us,
-
4:32 - 4:34through almost a kind
of alchemical process, -
4:34 - 4:38to transform these simple objects
that we never really notice -
4:38 - 4:42into something that is
for the contemplative. -
4:42 - 4:43Voiceover: Does that mean
that one of the definitions -
4:43 - 4:48of art now is to make a [unintelligible]
that were all around us anew? -
4:48 - 4:50Voiceover: Matisse was once asked -
-
4:50 - 4:52and this is a pretty famous quote -
-
4:52 - 4:54he was once asked, "What
makes a great artist?" -
4:54 - 4:56Matisse's answer was, "A great artist
-
4:56 - 4:58"is someone who allows us to see the world
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4:58 - 5:01"in a way that we had
never seen it before." -
5:01 - 5:03So, is art actually then the product
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5:03 - 5:05of somebody's technical skill?
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5:05 - 5:08Is it a product of somebody's ability
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5:08 - 5:10to render, and how legitimate is that now
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5:10 - 5:12in the age of photography?
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5:12 - 5:16Or, is art really embedded
in the conceptual? -
5:16 - 5:18On the other hand, at the same time,
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5:18 - 5:21this is absurd, and Duchamp
loved that it was absurd. -
5:21 - 5:22This is Dada.
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5:22 - 5:24It's a kind of anti-art.
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5:24 - 5:26It's in some ways a very
aggressive stance against art. -
5:26 - 5:28Let's just go forward for a moment.
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5:28 - 5:30I want to show you something
that's even more pure. -
5:30 - 5:31This is, I think, fabulous.
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5:31 - 5:33This is two years later.
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5:33 - 5:34This is 1915.
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5:34 - 5:36Duchamp has gone to a hardware store,
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5:36 - 5:39purchased a snow shovel, brought it back
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5:39 - 5:43to this studio, and decided
that he would give it a name, -
5:43 - 5:45which will conjure up a
whole sort of narrative. -
5:45 - 5:48It's called, "In Advance of a Broken Arm."
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5:48 - 5:50He's taken this ready-made -
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5:50 - 5:51Voiceover: You know, as
soon as you said that, -
5:51 - 5:54I had this vision of
someone shoveling snow, -
5:54 - 5:57out on the front stoop of their house.
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5:57 - 5:59Voiceover: I continue that narrative.
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5:59 - 6:01I see that person slipping on the ice,
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6:01 - 6:02and then breaking their arm.
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6:02 - 6:04What Duchamp has done is he said,
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6:04 - 6:05"This is not for use.
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6:05 - 6:07"This is now a narrative tool.
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6:07 - 6:10"We're constructing something that is
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6:10 - 6:11"to be thought of and looked at,
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6:11 - 6:13"as opposed to used."
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6:13 - 6:15But, it's such an absurd object.
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6:15 - 6:16Voiceover: We have some
idea in our culture -
6:16 - 6:20that art is different
from things that we use. -
6:20 - 6:23Art is not utilitarian,
which is an odd thing to say -
6:23 - 6:25because to me, if we just go back
-
6:25 - 6:27to medieval art, artists
in the Renaissance - -
6:27 - 6:28Voiceover: It's always utilitarian.
-
6:28 - 6:29Voiceover: It's always incredibly -
-
6:29 - 6:34It only becomes not utilitarian
in the 19th or 18th century. -
6:34 - 6:36Voiceover: Let's say
that this snow shovel, -
6:36 - 6:38which is very famous, this sculpture,
-
6:38 - 6:40"In Advance of a Broken Arm," let's say
-
6:40 - 6:42it went up for auction at one
of the big auction houses - -
6:42 - 6:44a Christie's, a Sotheby's,
or something, right? -
6:44 - 6:47I'm guessing but let's say the opening bid
-
6:47 - 6:48was one point five million dollars.
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6:48 - 6:51Then, let's say this was
taking place in New York, -
6:51 - 6:53and you walk out of the showroom
while the bidding was starting. -
6:53 - 6:56You walk over to Lexington Avenue
and you buy yourself a snow shovel, -
6:56 - 6:58which is, on the upper
East Side, forty dollars. -
6:58 - 7:01Somehow, you get it past the guards
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7:01 - 7:02and you walk back into the showroom,
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7:02 - 7:04and you've got the very same snow shovel
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7:04 - 7:08that's being auctioned off for one point
five million dollars up on the stage. -
7:08 - 7:09Is there a difference?
-
7:09 - 7:11It's a really interesting
issue and, actually, -
7:11 - 7:13that scenario that I just offered suggests
-
7:13 - 7:16that Duchamp failed, and let me explain.
-
7:16 - 7:19Dada itself is embedded
in the artist's reaction -
7:19 - 7:21against the violence of the
First World War, to some extent. -
7:21 - 7:23Voiceover: And against
the bourgeois culture. -
7:23 - 7:25Voiceover: One of the
indictments that the artist made -
7:25 - 7:28is that art had been one of the props
-
7:28 - 7:31by which bourgeois culture
had maintained itself. -
7:31 - 7:33Now, remember the First
World War was not fought -
7:33 - 7:34for ideological reasons.
-
7:34 - 7:36It was really fought largely for grief,
-
7:36 - 7:38national grief, personal grief, et cetera.
-
7:38 - 7:41It was unprecedented violence
of the First World War. -
7:41 - 7:46We have the Dada artists thinking about
-
7:46 - 7:49how they can create an art
that completely undermines -
7:49 - 7:53that notion of art helping to
establish hierarchical status. -
7:53 - 7:55Voiceover: Uh oh, but then
it's being sold at Christie's. -
7:55 - 7:58Voiceover: That's why I said,
in a sense that would suggest -
7:58 - 8:00that Duchamp failed, but what Duchamp is
-
8:00 - 8:02trying to do is subvert
capitalism, to some extent, -
8:02 - 8:04as it relates to art here.
-
8:04 - 8:06That is to say Duchamp is saying,
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8:06 - 8:08"I'm going to make art out of something
-
8:08 - 8:10"that is absolutely ordinary."
-
8:10 - 8:12Can that be done?
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8:12 - 8:14Must art be singular and precious?
-
8:14 - 8:16You know, you walk into somebody's house,
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8:16 - 8:18and if they have an original painting
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8:18 - 8:19by Picasso hanging on the wall,
-
8:19 - 8:22that says a lot about their
status in our society. -
8:22 - 8:25But if somebody has a
snow shovel, maybe not. -
8:25 - 8:27This is two years later
again; this is 1917. -
8:27 - 8:30Another ready-made and,
of course, it's a urinal - -
8:30 - 8:33Voiceover: An upside-down urinal.
-
8:33 - 8:35Voiceover: Well, he takes
it, he shifts it 90 degrees. -
8:35 - 8:38Duchamp actually submits it to an
exhibition that was an unjuried show, -
8:38 - 8:42and you have to remember that in
the 19th and early 20 centures, -
8:42 - 8:45many art exhibitions were juried
and were relatively conservative. -
8:45 - 8:49Here was what was supposed
to be a radical organization -
8:49 - 8:52that was going to show anything
and not have a juried exhibition. -
8:52 - 8:55Duchamp submits this and it's rejected.
-
8:55 - 8:57Voiceover: It looks like
there's a signature on it. -
8:57 - 8:59Voiceover: Well, he signed it, "R. Mutt,"
-
8:59 - 9:02and there's some theories about
why he signs it, "R. Mutt." -
9:02 - 9:04Voiceover: He seems like a very silly man.
-
9:04 - 9:06Voiceover: I think that there was
a kind of ludicrousness to it, -
9:06 - 9:09and I think he took a
certain joy in the absurd. -
9:09 - 9:12There's no question, and I
think that that's pretty clear -
9:12 - 9:15in the way he would present
himself to the public, -
9:15 - 9:19often in drag, representing
his alter ego, Rrose Selavy. -
9:19 - 9:21Voiceover: This is Duchamp himself.
-
9:21 - 9:23Voiceover: This is the artist himself.
-
9:23 - 9:25Voiceover: He's really
just interested in play. -
9:25 - 9:27Voiceover: He's interested in -
-
9:27 - 9:31Voiceover: In taking categories
and subverting categories. -
9:31 - 9:33Voiceover: In all kinds
of play, visual play, -
9:33 - 9:36and also word play, which is
embedded in a lot of his work, -
9:36 - 9:39and a more literal kind of play.
-
9:39 - 9:41Later in his life, he would reject art,
-
9:41 - 9:44in fact, as an occupation, and said
-
9:44 - 9:46that he wanted to spend the rest
of his life simply playing chess. -
9:46 - 9:52He would be lying, though, when he
said he wouldn't make art any longer. -
9:52 - 9:55He made art, actually, until
the end of his life, in secret. -
9:55 - 9:57Voiceover: When you say, "making art,"
-
9:57 - 10:00you don't actually mean making art.
-
10:00 - 10:02Voiceover: Well, not
painting, that's true. -
10:02 - 10:06(lively music)
- Title:
- Marcel Duchamp and the Ready-Made
- Description:
-
Works by Marcel Duchamp discussed:
Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), oil on canvas, 1912 (Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Bicycle Wheel, Metal wheel on wood stool, 1913, (replica after lost original, 1951), (MoMA)
In Advance of a Broken Arm, galvanized-iron snow shovel, 1915 (replica after lost original, 1964), (MoMA)
Fountain, porcelain urinal, 1917 (replica after lost original, 1951), (Philadelphia Museum of Art)Speakers: Dr. Steven Zucker, Dr. Beth Harris
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 10:13
Report Bot edited English subtitles for Marcel Duchamp and the Ready-Made |